IE News

Monday, 24 December 2018

E-book sales

Ideation Entertainment has partnered with Smashwords to offer Myrna Petersen's ebooks at a dramatically reduced price for a limited time. Smashwords is a global ebook distributor serving authors, publishers, readers and major ebook retailers.

The 2nd annual Smashwords End of Year Sale, takes place December 25, 2018 through January 1, 2019. This is a collaborative marketing event and for these eight days only, thousands of Smashwords authors and publishers will provide readers deep discounts on ebooks. Discount levels include 25%-off, 50%-off, 75%-off and FREE.

At one minute past midnight Pacific time on December 25, the special Smashwords End of Year promotion catalog goes live on the Smashwords home page. Readers can browse the catalog and search by coupon code levels and categories. After 11:59 pm Pacific time on January 1, the catalog disappears.

Monday, 17 December 2018

Captivating Creative Craftsmen and Study Guide is a great read for individuals or in a small group study. This is not how-to-instruction in the art of one's choice but rather, a book to help crafts people artists and musicians draw closer to the creator of the universe to release one's creativity.

Creativity, part of our inheritance, from the cave dwelling era to modern society, is revealed through various artistic means:

Story Telling

Art Tells Stories

Sound as a Music Pre-requisite

Working with Our Hands

Heaven and Earth Dance

Design and Colors

The Master and His Wine-workers

Understanding Times and Seasons

Craftsmen in the Last Days

Jesus, the Master Winemaker

And much more...

For a sneak preview and/or place an order of paperback copies from our distributor

Sunday, 14 May 2017

Article published in Saskatchewan newspaper

This article was published in the Wadena News, May 1, 2017 under the title "Land of ancestors provides familiar conversation."

We have reprinted an update for our readers.

Nut Lake Lutheran Church’s Norwegian
Connection By
Myrna Petersen

Growing
up close to the little white church on the hill northeast of Rose Valley, I’d
seen photographs and heard stories of how the original church pioneers had
designed Nut Lake Church similar to a Lutheran church built in Bjelland,
Norway.

My
maternal grandparents, Ole and Anna Bjerland immigrated from Bjelland, Norway. They
homesteaded a mile east of where Nut Lake Church originated, and now over a
century later, the original farm still remains in the Bjerland family.

An
once-in-a-lifetime opportunity came last Fall while touring Jutland, a large
peninsula in Denmark’s north. While reviewing maps, I realized that Bjelland is
located in the southeast corner of Norway, only a short ferry trip from Denmark
across the North Sea, to reach the region where my maternal ancestors
originated.

With
this knowledge I quickly attempted to connect with any long-lost relatives who
might be able to fill in the gaps. Fate was with me when an 88-year-old second
cousin from Michigan came to the rescue and provided names of Norwegian
relatives still living in the Bjelland area!

In
late October 2016, my Danish hostess and I boarded a 7-decker Color Line
Super-Speed ship at the Danish port of Hirtshals. After a 3-½ hour ferry trip
across the North Sea’s Skaggerak Strait we arrived at the Norwegian seaport
city of Kristiansand. From there, it was only an hour car drive up
well-maintained mountainous roads to reach the small village of Bjelland.

There,
only a hundred meters from the village sign, was the Bjelland church where my Grandpa
Ole Bjerland married Anna Kaaland on June 24, 1905. The white church with it’s
surrounding graveyard appeared eerily similar to the one I grew up close-to in
NE Saskatchewan. And gathered to greet us were 8 members of their community,
including several relatives who I soon learned, live very much like their
Canadian kinsfolk.

Bjelland
kirke has designated heritage conservation status, as there was a church on
this site as early as 1429. A second church was erected in the 1600’s, and the
current building, dates from 1793. A wood structure, the church has 300 seats
and three galleries. Our guide, Torgny Sandland, played the church’s pipe organ
for many years and has a wealth of knowledge about the church history and
surrounding community.

Angels
are painted on the ceilings, and rose paintings on the walls. Torgny told us
how decades earlier, the church bishop believed the paintings were distracting
the parishioners from listening to the preacher’s message so he ordered the
paintings covered up with green paint. It was only in 1944, when the local
community banded together to supply their labor and financing, that the
paintings were restored. Today, visitors can appreciate the folk paintings of
acclaimed artists Gutorm Persson Eftestøl and Knud Knudsen Årstøl.

A
most memorable time came when I was given permission to play some of my
original instrumental compositions on the church piano. As the acoustics of
these ancient walls resounded, I was struck with the knowledge that ‘my sound’
had deep roots in the place. In fact, one could surmise the seed of the music
originated there.

The
cemetery surrounding the church building is kept splendidly groomed as a lovely
garden. At the rear of the property is a forest grove with sounds of a nearby
stream in dispersed with distant cowbells clanging. Peaceful indeed!

Nut Lake Church in Canada

Checking
out headstones, I came upon the grave of Jenny Koland, my grandmother’s two-year
old niece. Discovering the tall tombstone of my paternal great-grandparents I
was hit with the realization that although thousands of kilometers apart, the
connection between two churches and patches of land is very powerful.

A
horses’ hitch-pole still stands: Reminder of the ancient practice of tying up those
who brought disgrace on the community, (i.e., thieves or adulterers) so the
community could heap condemnation by ‘spitting’ on them.Seems pretty bizarre and barbaric in this
age.

Torgny
presented another historical surprise a few miles down the road in Koland.
While not related, he knew the home is the same place where my Grandma Anna was
born in 1888. Torgny invited the entire group back to tour his place. Although
additions have been made to the house over the years, we were able to see the
original partition where my Grandma Anna lived. We were then shown true
Norwegian hospitality as his wife Tordis prepared delicious home- buns and soup
for us.

Sitting
around a large kitchen table and listening to the Norwegian conversations
seemed so familiar. Showing strangers hospitality was the same type of
environment that I grew up while living in the Nut Lake Church community. In
fact that entire weekend I kept hearing this sentence repeatedly in my mind,
“You need to know where you came from to understand where you are going.”

Next
we were off to the original farm where my Grandpa Bjerland lived. Up, higher in
the mountains, beautifully set on a hill and overlooking a lake. One wonders
how our ancestors adjusted from such a forest area to the flat Saskatchewan
prairies. The property is still in the Bjerland family, and is now owned by my
second cousin Kjell Egil Leland and his wife Ingrid. Their son Vegard and his family
live in the Bjerland house, one that replaced the original homestead, which
burnt down several years ago.

Due
to Norwegian laws providing family members the status of preferred buyers in
the sale of agriculture, the passing of family farms from one generation to another
is an important part of their society. So much so, that I was also able to view
the 400-year-old farmyard on my Great-grandma Siri Bjerland’s side, which still
remains under the ownership of a relative.

Perhaps
Canada could learn some lessons from Norway when it comes to the control of
farm homesteads.

This book is now available on-line to be freely borrowed by individuals who hold a Library Card within the province. We are proud to be able to share these incredible stories of these brilliant individuals who pioneered their works right from my home town!

Sunday, 6 March 2016

New e-Book Availableby Myrna Petersen with Natalie Tkach
A short informative guide on how to know when you need a Lawyer, where to find one, hire one, and what to do if you are having problems with your Lawyer and want to fire him/her!